These are three diverse businesses with one common bond — the owners of each are this year’s recipients of Entrepreneurial Spirit Awards from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, designed to give budding entrepreneurs a leg up through support, education, and inspiration.

The initiative recognizes students in the various colleges and universities across the Valley, who have used their entrepreneurial drive to start companies, introduce new ideas, or develop products or services.

The program was created in the fall of 2003, and Brenda Wishart, director of the HGCF Entrepreneurship Initiative, said Grinspoon himself was a primary driver behind getting it started.

“It really was his brainchild,” she said of the business owner, real estate developer, and noted philanthropist. “He wanted to give back to the community, but also promote entrepreneurship as a viable career option, and in the process, to take advantage of the Valley’s institutions.”

Harold Grinspoon is the founder and President of Aspen Square Management Inc., a national real estate company based in West Springfield. He is active in many local charities, including as a board member for the Community Foundation of Western Mass., and has also founded many of his own, including I Have A Dream in Springfield, designed to promote education and pay for the college expenses of underprivileged inner-city youth. The Harold Grinspoon Foundation is also a founding partner in PEJE, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, and through the foundations he promotes quality education, entrepreneurship, medical research, and vibrant Jewish life in Western Mass.

As an extension of these activities, the HGCF created the Excellence in Teaching Awards for Pioneer Valley communities, as well as a number of entrepreneurial programs in Greater Springfield high schools and within colleges in the Valley.

Organic Growth

Over the past four years, the entrepreneurship initiative has grown considerably. Wishart said it began with a stipend for faculty members who volunteered to teach entrepreneurship-related courses, and in turn identify students interested in starting their own businesses, developing a product or service, or just those who seemed to possess “the entrepreneurial spirit.”

“At the end of year, we held a banquet to celebrate those students,” said Wishart, noting that the annual celebration illustrates the initiative’s growth over the years; in 2004, 20 students with 16 burgeoning businesses were honored, while in 2007, just last month, 43 students representing 33 businesses were recognized.

She added that the banquet has become somewhat of a tradition, as have several features of the event.

For instance, in addition to the presentation of the Entrepreneurial Spirit awards each year, an ‘elevator pitch’ competition is held as part of the dinner, charging one student from each of the 13 participating Western Mass. colleges with making a 90-second pitch for a new business concept.

Student presentations are judged by area investment bankers on the feasibility of the concept, as well as quality of the pitch. Participants are not allowed to use technology, distribute handouts, or use props. The winner receives a $1,000 award, and that’s just one way that students are recognized for their entrepreneurial drive at the banquet.

A new tradition was also added this year, the Alumni Award, which also speaks to the initiative’s overall growth. The award recognizes a former Entrepreneurial Spirit award winner who has gone on to achieve further success with a company, a product, or a concept. This year’s award went to Josh Kerson of Florence, who won the Spirit award in 2004 for his idea for an electric bicycle. The company has taken off, recently landing Kerson a feature in Entrepreneur magazine.

“With the Alumni award, we seek out former student award winners and see how they are doing,” said Wishart. “Josh has really made a significant impact with his electric hybrid cycle, which legal only in about 40 states. He has attracted investors, founded a store and a plant, and is producing 2,000 to 5,000 units per year. It’s our hope that his story will inspire students, as well as other entrepreneurs to offer more support and guidance.”

And among those entrepreneurs she hopes will leave the banquet inspired are this year’s recipients of Entrepreneurial Spirit awards, who received scholarships ranging from $500 to $3,500.

The winners included Jason Randall, a student at American International College who created countryclubcritics.com along with Ross Giombetti of Hampden; Lisa Johnson, a student at Springfield Technical Community College and owner of the Gifted Hatter; Kathleen Bailey, founder of Kathleen Bailey Pilates and a student at Mount Holyoke College; and Brycen Spencer, a UMass-Amherst student with a developing concept in emergency-response technology.

Spencer explained that his concept is called WIG, or Wireless Impact Guardian. He hopes to use the scholarship he received from the Grinspoon Foundation to further his business.

“The WIG is, first and foremost, a life-saving system that, in essence, offers OnStar-like service to helmets,” he explained. “WIG is applicable to any activity that requires or recommends the use of a helmet. Using sensors and a positioning technology, the WIG will detect a traumatic crash and send help to the user.

“The technology is all compact and relatively inexpensive, which translates into little physical modification to the helmet at the factory and a similarly priced end product to the consumer,” Spencer continued. “The WIG will come already installed at the factory so that consumers can buy a helmet right off the shelf with the system in it.”

Spencer added that he got involved with the foundation after submitting a business plan to a competition at UMass.

“At the time, I entered against a few other teams in the Entrepreneurship Initiative Independent Study at UMass-Amherst,” he said, referencing the program run by Paul G. Silva and Claudio Santoro Jr. “I was awarded a third-place prize, and from there, I refined my business plan through various presentations to a board of advisors from the River Valley Investors.”

To date, Spencer has secured a provisional patent for WIG, and is working toward attaining a non-provisional utility patent.

“The Grinspoon Charitable Foundation is a helpful resource for people like myself, with the urge to become entrepreneurs,” he explained. “Resources like the Grinspoon Foundation and the entrepreneurship initiative help people in the early stages find that road to success, and turn a dream into a reality.”

Unique Programs, Common Goals

While the banquet and its subsequent awards and recognition for area entrepreneurs is a major part of the Grinspoon initiative, Wishart said it has served as a springboard for other programs across the Valley.

“That aspect of the program is still very big,” she said, “but up to two years ago, that was the program. Then we started the Collegiate Entrepreneurship Conference, and things really started moving.”

Now, the banquet provides celebratory inspiration, while the conference takes on a more academic, training-based role.

The event is planned and coordinated by faculty from the various participating institutions, and its mission, said Wishart, is to encourage entrepreneurship activity in the Pioneer Valley by fostering an environment within colleges and universities that informs and supports budding entrepreneurs.

“It really focuses on the how-to, how to get started,” she explained. “We cover how to craft a strong pitch for a business, how to attract venture capitalists, access grant resources, understand legal structures … all of the topics are things people will be exposed to, and need to learn how to tackle.”

The conference also involves a number of area businesses and business leaders, who speak on topics ranging from marketing to some of the key components they have identified as part of a successful entrepreneurial venture.

“We’ve also used guest speakers to do some exciting things within the schools — a lot has happened in the past four years,” said Wishart.

The Grinspoon Entrepreneurship program has helped to move other, sometimes larger entrepreneurial programming forward, including Bay Path College’s MBA in Entrepreneurial Thinking and Innovative Practices, and other courses of study at other colleges, such WNEC, HCC, and Smith, which have each added classes or special programs related to entrepreneurship.

“We all do things that are common to one another, and things that are unique,” said Wishart. “I think that if we want to reach as many college students in the Valley as possible, we need to continue to offer complementary courses in business and strategy, and get them involved in developing their own entrepreneurial interests.

Drive for the Long Road Ahead

“In turn, if we provide resources and mentorship to students who are serious about starting a business throughout their college careers, we can get these students on a track that will prepare them to own a businesses soon after graduation, not many years later,” she continued.

Judging by this year’s Entrepreneurial Spirit Winners, the Grinspoon initiative is indeed helping to put a greater number of Western Mass. students on the fast track — and that’s a long-term strategy.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at stevenson@businesswest.com